St. Cecilia chaplain puts Divine Mercy Chaplet to music in new EP

Since Pope Francis announced the Year of Mercy in April 2015, Father Kevin McGoldrick has been developing a deepening devotion to praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

He’s combined that devotion with his musical talent by producing a EP of the Divine Mercy Chaplet set to music. The EP became available on iTunes on Feb. 16.

Father McGoldrick began writing the music on Good Friday two years ago. He drew on the jam band movement for inspiration.

The rock band the Grateful Dead and the International House of Prayer, a nondenominational church in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its style of extended prayer, were his two biggest influences for the recording.

“I thought to myself that if these two groups got together to pray the chaplet, this is what it would sound like,” Father McGoldrick said.

At its core, Father McGoldrick’s EP is still a prayer, he said.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet was created by St. Maria Faustina, a Polish Sister of the Lady of Mercy, in the 1930s. She received a message from God to spread his Divine Mercy across the world.

The devotion is prayed using a set of normal rosary beads. It can be prayed at any time, but it is said especially during Divine Mercy Sunday, which falls a week after Easter Sunday.

As Father McGoldrick’s devotion to saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet grew, it served as a way to focus his thoughts on what it means to be merciful.

“The message of God’s mercy is so crucial in today’s world,” he said. “Mercy is what happens when God’s love encounters sin.”

Despite his previous experience with recording music, this album presented its own unique challenges.

“The biggest challenge with putting the Chaplet to music is keeping it prayable,” said Father McGoldrick, who is the chaplain at St. Cecelia Academy and Overbrook School. “You don’t want the music to be distracting, but it still has to be musically interesting.”

Another challenge he faced was the length of the 13-minute recording. Again, he needed to keep the music interesting while also allowing it to grow. Fortunately, his previous recording experience armed him for the task.

This is Father McGoldrick’s second musical release. His first full-length album, “Square Peg Round Hole,” came out in September 2015 and reached number one on the Cecilia Music global chart. He believes this better prepared him for getting other musicians to participate in his artistic vision.

“When they bring in set musicians to the studio, you tell them what to do, but they still bring their own creativity,” he said. “It’s kind of like being a coach. The players are the ones that execute what happens on the field, but you are the one controlling everything.”

Music has always been a large part of Father McGoldrick’s ministry, and he has had plenty of opportunities to lead worship music and large conferences. Two years ago, he helped lead a large group in the chaplet during World Youth Day in Warsaw, Poland.

He has continued to pray the chaplet live with people in smaller settings as well.

“The best feedback that I’ve gotten is that it’s easy to pray with,” he said. “It gets stuck in your head. I want it to be something that people stay with and really pray.”

For more information about the Divine Mercy Chaplet EP and Father McGoldrick’s other recordings, visit his website at www.kevinmcgoldrickmusic.com.